The present disclosure relates to a fixing device, and to an image forming apparatus provided with a fixing device. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a fixing device having a static elimination sheet for eliminating electrical charge from the surface of a pressing member, and to an image forming apparatus provided with such a fixing device.
Conventionally, image forming apparatuses are provided with a fixing device for fixing a toner image transferred to a recording medium such as a sheet or the like from an image carrying member. As fixing devices, there are known those adopting a roller fixing method provided with a heating roller and a pressing roller rotating while in contact with each other, and those adopting a belt fixing method using an endless fixing belt as a heating member. For example, a fixing device of a roller fixing method heats and presses a toner image carried on a sheet in a nip portion between a fixing roller and a pressing roller kept in pressed contact with each other, and thereby fixes the toner image on the sheet.
In this fixing device, a pressing roller generally used is provided with an elastic layer of silicone rubber or the like on the circumference of a metal core and the circumference is further provided with a release layer of fluorine resin or the like. These elastic and release layers are electrically insulating, and thus the surface of the pressing roller can be charged to minus several thousand volts by friction with a recording medium. This can cause the recording medium to wind around the pressing roller and toner to attach to the fixing roller.
To avoid that, an image forming apparatus is proposed in which a fixing housing and a conveying guide of resin arranged around the pressing roller are provided with a static elimination sheet extending in the axial direction of the pressing roller, and in which the static elimination sheet is electrically grounded to the main body of the image forming apparatus via a plate spring.